Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: automatic guitar tuners and 3D metal printers

At any given moment, there are approximately a zillion crowdfunding campaigns on the web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there — alongside some real gems. In this column, we cut through all the worthless wearables and Oculus Rift ripoffs to round up the week’s most unusual, ambitious, and exciting projects. But don’t grab your wallet just yet. Keep in mind that any crowdfunded project can fail — even the most well-intentioned. Do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams.

Roadie 2 — universal automatic guitar tuner

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There is little in in this world more unbearable than listening to somebody play an improperly tuned guitar. It’s 10 times worse than fingernails on a chalkboard, and makes anyone within hearing distance want to cut out their eardrums with a hot grapefruit spoon.

So if you play guitar and you’re not good at tuning it, please do everyone a favor and snag yourself a digital tuner. Really, any old tuner will do the trick, but if you want the Cadillac of tuners, get yourself a Roadie 2.

This the new-and-improved version of the original roadie, which hit Kickstarter back in 2013. What makes it so special? Well, not only can it listen to and automatically adjust the tension of your strings, but it can also give you feedback on the health of your strings and recommend restringing as soon as the tone quality deteriorates.

On top of that, it’s universal and will work with a wide variety of different stringed instruments, regardless of how they’re tuned. And best of all? It’s designed to be a standalone device, so you don’t have to pair it with your smartphone in order to use it — just turn it on and start plucking.

Read more here

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: automatic guitar tuners and 3D metal printers

At any given moment, there are approximately a zillion crowdfunding campaigns on the web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there — alongside some real gems. In this column, we cut through all the worthless wearables and Oculus Rift ripoffs to round up the week’s most unusual, ambitious, and exciting projects. But don’t grab your wallet just yet. Keep in mind that any crowdfunded project can fail — even the most well-intentioned. Do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams.

Roadie 2 — universal automatic guitar tuner

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

There is little in in this world more unbearable than listening to somebody play an improperly tuned guitar. It’s 10 times worse than fingernails on a chalkboard, and makes anyone within hearing distance want to cut out their eardrums with a hot grapefruit spoon.

So if you play guitar and you’re not good at tuning it, please do everyone a favor and snag yourself a digital tuner. Really, any old tuner will do the trick, but if you want the Cadillac of tuners, get yourself a Roadie 2.

This the new-and-improved version of the original roadie, which hit Kickstarter back in 2013. What makes it so special? Well, not only can it listen to and automatically adjust the tension of your strings, but it can also give you feedback on the health of your strings and recommend restringing as soon as the tone quality deteriorates.

On top of that, it’s universal and will work with a wide variety of different stringed instruments, regardless of how they’re tuned. And best of all? It’s designed to be a standalone device, so you don’t have to pair it with your smartphone in order to use it — just turn it on and start plucking.

Read more here

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: automatic guitar tuners and 3D metal printers

At any given moment, there are approximately a zillion crowdfunding campaigns on the web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there — alongside some real gems. In this column, we cut through all the worthless wearables and Oculus Rift ripoffs to round up the week’s most unusual, ambitious, and exciting projects. But don’t grab your wallet just yet. Keep in mind that any crowdfunded project can fail — even the most well-intentioned. Do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams.

Roadie 2 — universal automatic guitar tuner

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

There is little in in this world more unbearable than listening to somebody play an improperly tuned guitar. It’s 10 times worse than fingernails on a chalkboard, and makes anyone within hearing distance want to cut out their eardrums with a hot grapefruit spoon.

So if you play guitar and you’re not good at tuning it, please do everyone a favor and snag yourself a digital tuner. Really, any old tuner will do the trick, but if you want the Cadillac of tuners, get yourself a Roadie 2.

This the new-and-improved version of the original roadie, which hit Kickstarter back in 2013. What makes it so special? Well, not only can it listen to and automatically adjust the tension of your strings, but it can also give you feedback on the health of your strings and recommend restringing as soon as the tone quality deteriorates.

On top of that, it’s universal and will work with a wide variety of different stringed instruments, regardless of how they’re tuned. And best of all? It’s designed to be a standalone device, so you don’t have to pair it with your smartphone in order to use it — just turn it on and start plucking.

Read more here

Man receives someone else’s reprogrammed stem cells

The concept of using stem cells for transplants just became a truly practical reality: a Japanese man with age-related macular degeneration has received the first transplant of stem cells from another human donor. Doctors repurposed the donor’s skin cells by turning them into induced pluripotent stem cells (that is, forced into a state where they can become many kinds of cells) that then became retinal cells. If all goes according to plan with the multi-step procedure, these fresh cells will halt the degeneration and preserve the patient’s remaining eyesight.

This isn’t the first time that human stem cells have been used. There was another macular degeneration treatment in 2014. However, the prior example revolved around taking samples from the patient’s own skin. That’s risky when they may be dealing with genetic flaws that could hinder the treatment. So long as the newest procedure proves a long-term success, it opens the door to plucking cells from healthier candidates.

And importantly, there are plans for this to become relatively commonplace. Researcher Shinya Yamanaka is developing a stem cell bank that would give recipients immediate treatment, instead of having to wait months to cultivate cells from a matching candidate. This would only potentially address about 30 to 50 percent of the Japanese population, but that could be enough to improve the quality of life for many people.

Source: Nature, NEJM

Survival horror game ‘We Happy Few’ is becoming a movie

Video game movies tend to struggle in part because of their stories. What sounds good for an adventure or first-person shooter can fall flat when you’re asked to construct a cinematic narrative around it. However, you might get something better this time around. Variety has learned that We Happy Few, Compulsion Games’ paranoia-fueled tale of an English town gone terribly wrong, is becoming a movie. The company behind the Pitch Perfect movies, Gold Circle Entertainment, is working with dj2 Entertainment (also working on the Sleeping Dogs movie) to make it a reality.

There’s still a lot up in the air. The team doesn’t even have writers, let alone a cast. Compulsion believes the producers have good ideas for maintaining the “menace, dark humor and central themes” of the survival horror title, however, and dj2 says it’ll stay “true to the source material” while including a few surprises.

There’s good reason to be skeptical, since game-based movies only rarely get top-flight screenwriting and acting talent. However, We Happy Few at least has a concept that’s well-suited to the big screen. Its alternate history plot, where people are forced to take a mind-altering drug to hide a sinister truth, shares something common with popular movies that revolve around the “town with a dark secret” premise — think The Wicker Man or even Hot Fuzz. That’s a good platform to build on, then. The big challenge is evoking the spirit of those classics without either being overly derivative or diluting what makes the game special.

Source: Variety

Exploit attacks your smart TV through over-the-air signals

Worries that someone could hijack your TV with a broadcast have been present for decades (ever see The Outer Limits?), and it’s clear that they’re not going away any time soon. Oneconsult security researcher Rafael Scheel has outlined an attack that can control smart TVs by embedding code into digital (specifically, DVB-T) over-the-air broadcasts. The intrusion takes advantage of flaws in a set’s web browser to get root-level access and issue virtually any command. You only need to have a transmission powerful enough to reach compatible TVs, and at least one attack will work without revealing that something is wrong.

The technique is known to work on at least two recent Samsung models, and it’s possible to alter the code to compromise other web-enabled TVs.

If there’s a saving grace, it’s the specificity of the attack. Only some countries use DVB-T, and fewer still support the hybrid broadcast broadband TV format (HbbTV) needed to make this work. The victim also needs to both be tuned into a DVB-T channel and have the TV connected to the internet. North Americans watching ATSC broadcasts have nothing to worry about right now, in other words, and you’re also safe if you use a game console or media hub for your living room entertainment.

The discovery nonetheless underscores the importance of locking down smart TVs, which don’t usually receive security updates as frequently as phones or PCs. It’s one thing when hackers compromise individual TVs through conventional internet-only attacks, but it’s that much more sinister when they can compromise multiple TVs within a certain range. Manufacturers will need to treat security as a higher priority if they’re going to prevent attacks like this from happening in the real world.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Oneconsult AG (YouTube)

Flying courier drone can drive up to your door

Delivery drones have more than a few challenges, not the least of which is dropping off the package in a convenient place. Do you really want to head out to your yard to collect a box? You might not have to. Advanced Tactics has successfully tested delivery with a drone, the Panther sUAS Air/Ground Robot, that can both fly and drive up to your door. When it’s too dangerous or costly to travel by air, the machine just has to touch down and wheel its way to its destination. It promises more considerate (not to mention less theft-prone) shipping to homes and offices, and it could also lead to faster deliveries in areas where no one transportation method is particularly speedy.

The Panther drone isn’t a heavy-duty hauler when it can only carry 15lbs, and its range is limited to 10 miles when on the ground (flying range isn’t mentioned, but it only flies for 5-10 minutes). However, it can handle attachment that extend its usefulness well beyond getting products from A to B. You can add a camera and video screen for telepresence, or sensors if you’re using it to study nature or construction projects. You can even add robot arms to grab samples or unload supplies.

The Panther is already on sale in the US (it’s discounted to $2,495 until April 5th), and Advanced Tactics is quick to stress that you don’t need to go through regulatory hoops to own one. It’s light enough to be considered a small drone, so you don’t need an FAA waiver to fly it. You probably won’t see companies using it right away, though. While it’s relatively easy to buy a drone for personal use, it’s another matter to clear the legal and logistical hurdles needed to use it for business. Where would delivery drones launch from, for example? Still, the test is proof that there are already drones that can solve some of the real-world problems with drone use.

Source: Advanced Tactics (PDF)

Musk wants to reuse more of the Falcon 9 rocket for future flights, and announces next test flight

Why it matters to you

Continual and rapid reuse of rocket boosters would drastically cut costs of space travel.

Despite the odds of successful integration, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk is considering plans to upcycle parts of the Falcon Heavy rocket for future flights to test before it debuts this summer.

Musk tweeted that he wants to mull over a “Falcon Heavy demo flight for full reusability,” even though the “odds are low.”

More: Elon Musk heralds ‘huge revolution in space travel’ after historic SpaceX mission

Musk also tweeted that the “Falcon Heavy test flight currently scheduled for late summer.”

Considering trying to bring upper stage back on Falcon Heavy demo flight for full reusability. Odds of success low, but maybe worth a shot.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2017

SpaceX’s effective first-time launch of a recycled rocket of the Falcon 9 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, March 30, 2017 has spawned plans for more parts to be reused this year. That launch recycled a booster that flew cargo to the International Space Station, according to the Guardian.

The recent booster upcycle saved SpaceX an estimated 30 percent on the cost of more than $60 million, according to the Guardian.

When a Twitter follower posed the question, “Is the GTO payload still projected for 22,200 kilograms?” Musk replied, “Looks like it could do 20 percent more with some structural upgrades to handle higher loads. But that’s in fully expendable mode.”

@jasonlamb Looks like it could do 20% more with some structural upgrades to handle higher loads. But that's in fully expendable mode.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2017

Musk spoke at a press conference after the launch on Thursday in Florida, and said the ideal turnaround for Falcon 9 rocket reuse would be 24 hours, according to Florida Today.

“Our aspiration will be zero hardware changes, reflight in 24 hours,” Musk said at the press conference. “The only thing that changes is we reload propellant.”

With more testing on the horizon it’s possible that SpaceX could reach its productivity goal at the cusp of 2018.

Florida Today reported that “the air frame and engines remained the same, but some auxiliary components were replaced.” Musk said that the Falcon Heavy tests could be done in two to three months.

“Speaking on Falcon Heavy overall, Musk said at first, strapping together three first stage boosters for a heavy-lift rocket ‘sounded easy,’” reported Florida Today.

“It was actually shockingly difficult to go from a single core to a triple core vehicle,” Musk said at the press conference. He also confirmed discounted prices at the launch’s press conference: “It will certainly be less than the current price of our rockets and will be far lower than any other rocket in the world.”

The ‘open and free’ Android is no longer what anyone wants to buy (or sell)

The open Android is the most important Android.

Android is one of the largest and most popular collections of open source software that has even seen the light of day. But the Android you’re getting when you buy the next important phone isn’t, and we have to wonder if anyone really cares.

Open source and “free and open” doesn’t mean free as in getting something that doesn’t cost money. It can mean that, and in many cases still does, but it doesn’t have to be a zero-cost thing. Most electronic things you buy are using open-source software somewhere to make them work and even companies you would never equate with free-as-in-you-don’t-pay, like Apple and Microsoft, use open source software. The people writing the “free” software deserve to be paid if that’s their wish and Intel, Cisco and other companies who aren’t Mozilla are selling software that’s open source.

Most any gadget you can buy uses open source software at some level.

This is great. There is no reason you shouldn’t profit from hard work and when a company or person gives a gift of code to other developers they shouldn’t lose revenue because of it. I like to think I’m paying for the time it took to build, test and debug something in a case like this, and that’s usually well worth the asking price.

Android has used this idea from day one to grow into one of the most-used pieces of software ever. One difference is that the license used for much of Android lets someone (anyone) use the code, change the code, do whatever with the code and not make those changes available to the rest of us. We’ve talked before about how this benefits everyone involved in the making of a phone and why it’s part of the reason Android is something so many people want to use in the thing they are trying to sell.

But we can go deeper. I’ll risk saying that the things that make Android something most of us want to use are the things that were never open source and never will be: every single app. When you add these two things together you end up with something that is neither open or free, and it ends up marginalizing the things that are. This builds a very wide gap between the Android that’s free for anyone to use and do anything with and the Android that makes all the money.

Open source is why Android has over 80% worldwide market share: it’s free to use and cheap to customize.

This history and some new rumors have plenty of folks concerned. Around the water cooler, talk suggests that much of what will be great in Android O is really a collection of things that will be great in the Google Pixel 2 or whatever its name will be. When we say great, we mean things that improve the lives of the people using it. The changes at the building block level are awesome in their own right, and so far what we’ve seen will all become part of Android and available for everyone who wants to download the code. But when it comes to the user-facing side, the idea that Google can keep exciting stuff for its own products is a concern to open-source evangelists like me.

It’s important to remember that this is no different to what any other phone manufacturer is doing. Samsung takes the free Android and runs it through a development team to produce something wildly different that will never be open sourced. But Samsung is not Google and is not charged with furthering the entire platform. In fact, Samsung can do these things — as can Amazon at the other end of the spectrum — because Google has been committed to further developing the platform and gives away the code. Google is now not only the platform maintainer but is an end-user for Android code, too. This can get tricky, and not in a good way.

Google has never said it is not going to add new and exciting features to Android as a whole.

If you only read one thing here make sure this it that thing. We’re speculating on other speculations and tossing it together with what we’ve seen in the past. Nothing would make any of us happier than someone from Google saying we are chock full of nonsense and it has every intention of adding so many cool things to Android that we get dizzy hearing about them all. But this entire industry thrives on the what-ifs.

What if Google adds the required changes to AOSP and stops there? AOSP is part of a fully functional operating system and is easier than most people think to build for a mobile device. But the end result is not what most people want, and pre-installed and configured apps and services are Android’s real draw.

We want the next Pixel to be great and unique, but we want those features to be available to others. That’s the tension.

My Raspberry Pi smartphone works just fine, but I’d rather use a phone with Gmail and all the other benefits that aren’t open source so it’s just a novelty. That’s the reason why the Raspberry Pi phone you can build at home with $90 worth parts isn’t something we’re all rushing out to make or buy. The Galaxy S or Moto G or any other phone is just better at doing what we want a phone to do.

All the companies making Android phones are capable of doing great things — even the brands you don’t like. But there are some things that are better because they are universal and those are all part of the open Android. We want the next Pixel to be great and have features that make it a great buy, but we want most of those features to be available to others. That’s the tension.

The Android Open Source Project is an amazing thing and Google spends a good bit of money to keep it maintained and available. We hope it stays that way for a long time.

Android O

• Everything new in Android O
• Should you put Android O on your phone?
• How to install the Android O Developer Preview
• Android O isn’t in the Android Beta Program yet
• Join the Discussion

‘Archer’ mobile game asks you to break out your printer

By their very nature, most augmented reality games are at least a little bit futuristic. The creators of Archer, however, are embracing the past… in more ways than one. FXX’s Archer, P.I. mobile game will have you pointing your Android or iOS device at your TV, Facebook and even billboards to scan for clues to a hidden story inside Archer: Dreamland, the film noir-inspired eighth season for the animated series. If you want to claim your rewards and unlock every mystery, though, you’ll also have to print and assemble physical objects based on what you see in the show. That’s right — if you’ve welcomed the paperless future with open arms, you won’t get everything the story has to offer.

It’ll seem more than a little odd at first blush, and it’s hard to say how well this will work when Archer resumes on April 5th. But to the creators, it’s just a logical extension of what they’ve been doing so far. Executive producer Matt Thompson tells Uproxx that his team wanted to up the ante on the previous two seasons, which offered digital rewards (a website and a 3D printer file) for fans willing to look closely at every scene. Now, you’re not constructing prizes so much as you are an entirely distinct narrative. While the printer element may be a throwback for some people, it only makes sense if you’re an avid viewer hoping for a souvenir at the end of the season.

Via: VRFocus

Source: App Store, Google Play